Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Organic intention

Gurdjieff:

The head is like an apparatus, it plays the role of police. But the centre of gravity of your presence is in your solar plexus, which is the centre of feeling. That is where things happen. The head is like a typewriter... Your head can only constate, not in any way work. You must work with your sensation and your feeling. As for the head, it can see whether they are together or separate. The head is not a part of the organism, it is separate from the organism. The head is nothing, a function, a typewriter, an apparatus. When you concentrate your attention in your head, you can constate what goes on in you. But the head is nothing, it is a stranger to the organism... It watches how the functions of your presence are working. Do you understand me?

It's sometimes in the moment when things become the worst that one has to have the strongest sensation and intention.

This moment is the moment where intention must be within the body as a living thing; one can't use the mind for it, because the mind is actually helpless.

Intention itself must become organic in the same way that sensation is organic. This is a different order of work and, so to speak, above the work of sensation — that is, intention cannot be organic unless sensation is also first organic.

The discrimination for this kind of understanding doesn't come from the mind either. It has to do with what Gurdjieff said about instinct. It is only through a solid and instinctive connection to sensation that I can begin to have an organic intention, and that intention is actually an intention towards the binding, the glue, that holds my Being together. Being will fall apart without this glue of intention; intention has to become as alive as the sensation becomes in the organic sense of being.

The phrase "I am — I wish to be" consequently doesn't have much meaning when the mind says it; it is basically useless. It is only when this is born within the body as a result of both sensation and intention that it begins to become a living thing; and by that time, the words don't mean as much, because this is not a thing made of words, it is a thing made of the qualities, the forces, of intention and sensation.

I need, in other words, to see not just this question about sensation from an organic point of view, I also need to understand intention from an organic point of view.

That which is not organic, not rooted, has no values or substance. That which is rooted is invulnerable.

One can definitely say, upon observation, that organic sensation is not "my" sensation; it is its own sensation, that is, it belongs to a different force from the force of my personality. I can say exactly the same thing about intention; an organic intention is not my intention; I am to cooperate with it, form a relationship with it, but it does not belong to me. It is of itself.

This experience of forces within Being as forces of themselves, rather than forces that "I" have some control over, is an interesting one.

Understanding this question of the role of the mind is a policeman allows for the other forces to be their own agencies; this is a new way of being entirely, isn't it?

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Recommendations and current reading list

Lee's current reading list (all recommended)

The Iceberg- Marion Coutts. This extraordinary book deserves to be read by every individual engaged in an inner search. The questions it raises about life, death, and relationship are framed by the authors responsibilities to her very young child and her dying husband. This is a book about real work in life, not esoteric theory.

Far From The Tree: Andrew Solomon. Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. Highly recommended.

Inner Yoga, Sri Anirvan—This extraordinary book is essential reading for any serious student of Gurdjieff or Yoga practice. Written at a level of both practical and philosophical discourse well above other contemporary work, Anirvan investigates the deep roots of Yoga practice, theory, and philosophy in a deeply sensitive series of insights. Of particular interest is the extraordinary and challenging piece on Buddhi and Buddhiyoga, which examines the questions of practice, life, and death with an acuity rarely encountered in other work of this nature.

Divine Love and Wisdom, Emmanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg gives us a detailed report on Reality as received from higher sources, reflecting many Truths one would be wise to study carefully. Readers will be astounded by the extraordinary degree of correlation between Swedenborg and Ibn 'Arabi. Many fundamental principles introduced by Gurdjieff are also expounded on in fascinating detail by Swedenborg. All of Swedenborg's works are well worth reading.

The Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom, Ibn 'Arabi. Another real gem, this book ought to be read by every seeker on the spiritual path. If you can only find the time to read one book by Ibn 'Arabi, this ought to be the one. By turns lighthearted, serious, insightful, and ingenius, al 'Arabi introduces us to our inner government character by character, explains their relationships, and indicates how to bring them into a state of harmonious cooperation. Written with love, the book deftly manages to avoid being didactic, delivering instead a sensitive, poetic, and even romantic look at how to organize our inner Being.

The Bezels of Wisdom—Ibn al 'Arabi. A compendium of observations about the nature of "The Reality"—what al 'Arabi calls God— from a 13th century Sufi master. This towering work easily holds its own against—and is worthy of comparison to—13th century masterpieces from other major religious traditions such as Dogen's Shobogenzo and Meister Eckhart's sermons.